Review: In our own backyard

A Star and its Planets An exhibition at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh

WHEN Voyager 2 passed Neptune last August, sending back photographs of a blue planet and a strange moon studded with nitrogen volcanoes, we reached the end of 'phase 1' of our exploration of the Solar System. Robot spacecraft have now sent us snapshots of all the planets, except Pluto, and even such exotic creatures as the nucleus of Halley's Comet.

In 'phase 2', automatic spacecraft will orbit all the planets, and land on those with solid surfaces, to give us a longer-term view. 'Phase 3' will involve astronauts taking that first 'small step' on the surface of other worlds.

So it is a good time in our exploration of other planets to round up what we know about the Solar System. For this reason, the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh has wisely chosen the Sun (the 'star' in the ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist